20 Peter Brown 
(1964-73) West of Scotland, Gala
Honours: 27 Scotland caps, two Five Nations Championship wins, four Calcutta Cup wins
What set him apart? His glorious, nerveless, toe-bashed conversion ended Scotland’s 33 year wait for a win at Twickenham in 1971 and a week later he was again the captain as the Centenary Test was won against the same opponents in emphatic fashion, scoring tries in both matches. A further year on and he was again the captain as, for the first time since the twenties, Scotland won three successive Calcutta Cup matches. Family history as well as that of Scottish rugby might have been very different had he been available for the historic 1971 Lions tour, his unavailability arguably helping free up a place for younger brother Gordon. However “the man on the coathanger” as he was dubbed for his odd gait, was a class act in his own right whether at lock or at No.8, the position from which he captained his country 10 times.

19 Jim Calder 
(1981-85) Stewart’s Melville FP
Honours: 27 Scotland caps, one Grand Slam, two Calcutta Cup wins, one Lions tour (one Test)
What set him apart? Part of a great group of back-row forwards which included David Leslie, Iain Paxton, John Beattie, Derek White and his own twin brother, Jim. Scored three tries in his career two of which are still repeatedly replayed at every opportunity. On both occasions it was about being the right man in the right place at the right time, finishing the stunning move that sent Scotland on their way to their first win in Cardiff for 20 years in 1982, then reacting first to a loose ball to clinch the Grand Slam in 1984. His other try was also quite special, registered at the HQ of the Auld Enemy and while it was not enough to bring about a Scottish win in 1981, he is one of those happy few to have won at Twickenham, doing so two years later in 1983, while that team also drew with the All Blacks later that year.

18 Finlay Calder 
(1986-91) Stewart’s Melville FP
Honours: 34 Scotland caps, one Grand Slam, two Five Nations Championship wins, two Calcutta Cup wins, one Lions tour (three Tests, one series win)
What set him apart? How do you separate the Grand Slam winning Calder twins? A combination of captaincy of both Scotland and the Lions on their successful 1989 tour of Australia plus the statistical evidence of their Scotland records just give Fin the nod. He, however, has acknowledged that he had to match his sibling’s greater drive and will to succeed before matching and then surpassing Jim’s achievements. It is perhaps also a measure of Calder’s character that he has expressed regret about having been persuaded out of retirement to play in the 1991 World Cup because of the controversy surrounding his collisions with Jim Staples and Sean Fitzpatrick. The reality is that his presence was crucial as Scotland came within a kick of getting to the final, something we may never experience again.

17 Craig Chalmers 
(1989-99) Melrose, Edinburgh Reivers, Glasgow Caledonians
Honours: 60 Scotland caps, one Grand Slam, one Calcutta Cup win, one Lions tour (one Test, one series win)
What set him apart? The ultimate competitor who in his playing days and more recently as a coach, found ways to win in any circumstances. His strengths are generally considered to have been with the boot and in his defensive discipline and it seems retrospectively significant that it was him rather than Gavin Hastings who had the goal-kicking duties during the 1990 Grand Slam campaign. Yet his superior play-making ability to vaunted contemporaries is best summed up by the fact that during his career Tony Stanger matched the all-time record for tries scored by a Scotland winger and in only one of the matches in which the winger scored - when Dougie Wylie deputised in a lesser game against Romania in 1989 - was anyone other than Chalmers the starting stand-off.

16 Sandy Carmichael 
(1967-78) West of Scotland
Honours: 51 Scotland caps, one Five Nations Championship win, five Calcutta Cup wins, two Lions tours
What set him apart? The world’s most capped prop when he played his final Test in 1978. That his career continued beyond the disgusting attack on him during a match in Canterbury when he was expected to be a key member of the Lions side for the 1971 Test series against the All Blacks speaks to his courage and resolve. The West of Scotland stalwart may have been denied a chance to play in a Lions Test, also touring South Africa with Willie John McBride’s “Invincibles” in 1974 where Fran Cotton emerged as a force, but the assault was, in a despicable way, something of a compliment in that the New Zealanders felt it so vital to remove him from the fray. A key member of the team that beat England twice in a week in 1971 and four times in two years in all, he was hugely respected throughout his career.

15 Wilson Shaw 
(1934-39) Glasgow HSFP
Honours: 19 Scotland caps, one Triple Crown, two Calcutta Cup wins
What set him apart? A stand-off who steered his side to Calcutta Cup wins 
at both Murrayfield and Twickenham but also a supreme back who performed just as effectively on the wing, scoring three tries in five appearances, at centre, where he also scored a try on his final Scotland appearance just before war broke out in 1939 when leading the team for the ninth time. At stand-off, however, he set up both tries in the Calcutta Cup win in 1935 and is best remembered for the two tries scored in that Triple Crown sealing win at Twickenham in 1938, an occasion which simply became known as “Wilson Shaw’s match”. Would have toured with the Lions that summer had he been available and was only 25 when he won the last of his caps inviting us to wonder what he might have achieved but for the war years.

14 Gavin Hastings 
(1986-95) Cambridge University, Watsonians, London Scottish
Honours: 61 Scotland caps, one Grand Slam, two Five Nations Championships, two Calcutta Cups, two Lions tours (six Test appearances, one series win)
What set him apart? Big Gav’s first two Test appearances set the tone as he kicked Scotland to victory over France on debut, then missed a succession of chances in the narrow defeat to Wales which ultimately cost the side a second Grand Slam in three years. A formidable on-field presence and irrepressible personality, he captained the Lions on their 1993 tour of New Zealand as well as Scotland on 20 occasions, no more impressively than when scoring the match winning try which ended a 26 year wait for a win in Paris. He showed some vulnerability when missing a penalty that could have taken his side into the 1991 World Cup final and when unable to contain the tears after the 1994 Calcutta Cup defeat, but self-doubt was never a major issue and he ended his career with a then record points haul.

13 Jim Renwick 
(1972-84) Hawick
Honours 52 Scotland caps, one Five Nations Championship win, four Calcutta Cup wins, one Lions tour (one Test appearance)
What set him apart? The man who added brilliance to the power and efficiency of the mighty Green Machine which dominated Scottish rugby in the seventies and eighties. He is the definition of a living legend in the town of Hawick where his rugby legacy is revered only partly because, relatively short and prematurely bald, he provided such a contrast to contemporary Andy Irvine’s glamour. He ended his career as Scotland’s record cap holder and a world record holder for appearances at centre, yet strangely made just one Test appearance for the Lions and extraordinarily, among just 17 Scotland wins, had to wait a full decade to experience a Test win away from Murrayfield at Cardiff in 1982 before helping the side claim a rare victory at Twickenham the following year.

12 Iain Milne 
(1979-90) Heriot’s FP
Honours: 44 Scotland caps, one Grand Slam, two Five Nations Championship wins, three Calcutta Cup wins, one British & Irish Lions tour
What set him apart? His peers only ever refer to him as “The Bear” but as the oldest of “The Three Bears” - brothers David and Kenny also represented their country and the three played together in the Edinburgh front-row - he was as much an immovable object as an irresistible force in his pomp. Corner-stone of the Grand Slam winning side of 1984 and the team that shared another championship two years later. Just missed out on being the only man to play in both Scotland’s Grand Slam winning teams, missing the 1990 campaign through injury before returning for that summer’s two Test series in New Zealand where he again came close to ending his Test career in historic fashion, Scotland narrowly and controversially losing the second Test when they had the better of the try count. 

11 Phil MacPherson 
(1922-39) Oxford University, Edinburgh Accies
Honours: 26 Scotland caps, one Grand Slam, three Five Nations Championship wins, four Calcutta Cup wins
What set him apart? The play-making ability of the captain of Scotland’s first ever Grand Slam winning side is summed up by the extraordinary haul of tries registered by his wingers. Johnnie Wallace played outside Macpherson five times and Ian Smith 17 times and in those 22 appearances the 1925 Grand Slam wingers scored a combined total of 28 tries. Throw in the four tries the centre scored himself and the scale of his influence on one of the greatest ever periods in Scottish rugby history could not be more evident. In total this most stylish and intuitive of players led the national team in 11 Tests, including all three of those 1925 matches in which he played - he missed the win in Dublin - and the first three matches of the 1927 campaign when Scotland shared the championship.